US embassy cable - 04COLOMBO480

C O N F I D E N T I A L COLOMBO 000480 
 
SIPDIS 
 
OFFICIAL INFORMAL 
 
FOR SA/INS 
 
E.O. 12958:  DECL:  03/18/14 
TAGS: AMGT, CE, MV, LTTE - Peace Process 
SUBJECT:  OFFICIAL INFORMAL NUMBER 043 (03/18/04) 
 
Classified by Ambassador Jeffrey J. Lunstead for reasons 
1.5 (b) and (d). 
 
CONTENTS: LATEST RE KARUNA SITUATION 
          REPORTED KILLING IN EAST 
          MRS. MCCAIN COMES AND GOES 
          CODEL DREIER 
 
LATEST RE KARUNA SITUATION 
-------------------------- 
 
1.  (C) FYI.  In a long interview with TamilNet posted 
on March 17, London-based LTTE spokesman Balasingham has 
made his first public comments on the Karuna situation. 
Balasingham said the Tiger split between the north and 
east was not a major politico-military crisis and that 
the LTTE would deal with it soon.  (The sheer length of 
the interview, however, would tend to indicate that it 
is a major issue for Balasingham and the LTTE!!)  In the 
meantime, the LTTE radio station, "Voice of the Tigers," 
has announced that the LTTE leadership in the Vanni has 
formally retracted its previous offer of amnesty to 
Karuna if he returned to the fold. 
 
REPORTED KILLING IN EAST 
------------------------ 
 
2.  (C) FYI.  According to press reports, a worker with 
the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) was killed in the 
Eastern District of Ampara on March 16.  While some news 
reports have portrayed the man's death as politically 
related, we have heard that the man may have died of 
natural causes.  If it is a politically-related killing, 
it would be the third death associated with the election 
campaign.  (POL) 
 
MRS. MCCAIN'S VISIT 
------------------- 
 
3.  (U) Cindy McCain, wife of Senator John McCain, was 
in Sri Lanka March 15-17 as a guest of the HALO Trust 
(demining people).  Her visit was completely 
unpublicized and she requested no official assistance. 
She spent two of her three days here in Jaffna visiting 
demining sites.  Ambassador had invited her to the 
residence upon her return from Jaffna. Unfortunately her 
return was delayed and she did not have time to come by 
before leaving for the airport and her return flight. 
She did mention that her husband hoped to visit here at 
some time. 
 
CODEL DREIER 
------------ 
 
4. (U) We sent in our country clearance cable for Codel 
Dreier today.  We of course welcome the Codel but tried 
to point out in the cable that it will be extremely 
difficult to program anything substantive in the limited 
Saturday/Sunday that the Codel will be here, given that 
the preceding Friday and the following Monday/Tuesday 
are all national holidays and almost all Sri Lankans 
will be out of Colombo.  We passed this word to the 
Codel before and were told not to worry, that they were 
"flexible."  In our cable, we have tried to ask 
diplomatically if the Codel would rather just have a day 
of beach/sightseeing.  If so, we would be happy to 
arrange that for them -- they just have to let us know. 
If someone there can phone someone on the Codel and (1) 
make sure they understand what the situation will be 
here and (2) try to get a more precise vision of what 
they really want to do, that would be a great help to 
us. 
 
LUNSTEAD